DALLAS — Texas A&M women's basketball fans occupied every seat and then some at Dick's Last Resort, near American Airlines Center, as Tuesday night became Wednesday morning.

The program reached new heights a few hours earlier with an upset of rival Baylor for its first berth in the Final Four. But coach Gary Blair's brief address to the raspy-throated Aggies sounded like the sales pitches he has delivered over eight seasons since inheriting a beleaguered basketball program in football country.

"If the football team won the Big 12, you'd be going to the bowl game," Blair, 65, said while standing on a chair. "Well, this is our bowl game. Find a way to get to Indianapolis. Go see your banker. Get yourself a loan."

When athletics director Bill Byrne sought to raise A&M women's basketball from the depths of the Big 12 Conference in 2003, he aimed — as he has in all of his hires — for a coach with Texas roots or success in the state. Blair fit both criteria.

He graduated from Dallas' Bryan Adams High in 1963 and played baseball at Texas Tech. Blair came home and started the girls basketball program at South Oak Cliff High (featuring Dennis Rodman's sister, Debra) and won three state championships. In East Texas, he took Stephen F. Austin to six NCAA tournaments in eight seasons.

Friday, Blair gathered some of his former South Oak Cliff players, now in their 50s, to mingle with his current Aggies for an evening at the Dallas jazz club Brooklyn soon after the team arrived in town.

"He tries to relate to how much coaching experience he has and how far he has come," junior guard Sydney Carter said. She said he danced a little, too.

Blair has guided A&M into the NCAA's dance for six consecutive seasons. The Aggies (31-5) face Stanford (33-2) in a national semifinal Sunday.

He previously took Arkansas to five NCAA tournaments in 10 seasons, including the 1998 Final Four. But Byrne convinced him (during talks that began in Dallas, of course) that A&M could compete with Texas and Texas Tech and their coaches who won national titles, Jody Conradt and Marsha Sharp.

"I believe to compete in this state, the coach that's from the state of Texas, played high school and college ball, has a huge recruiting advantage," Blair said. "That's what Jody and Marsha did to build up their programs."

A&M not only was losing when Blair arrived — finishing no higher than ninth in seven Big 12 seasons — it also was irrelevant on campus. Since Blair's wife, Nan, stayed at Arkansas as the school's director of nursing, he filled his spare time by speaking to local groups and even handing out tickets door to door.

"Why go home and look at the TV when I can go out and sell my program?" Blair said.

Byrne recalled his coach helping to wrap hot dogs before one game.

Blair began filling the win column (a share of the conference title in four years) and now fills seats (12th nationally in women's basketball home attendance this season).

Blair's '98 Arkansas Final Four team was a surprise, coming from the No. 9 seed. This A&M squad was ranked in the top eight since preseason, kept from higher rungs by three losses to the Baylor team it beat 58-46 on Tuesday.

The Aggies' 13-3 conference record tied the school's best in 29 seasons of Big 12 and Southwest Conference play.

"To do it this year means so much more than that '98 team because we lived up to it all year," Blair said. "Hopefully, we can be the next kid on the block to make all those runs like the Connecticuts and Tennessees and Dukes and Stanfords and Baylors."